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SpinRite 6.0 requires a BIOS-DOS environment to boot and run in, as does SpinRite 6.1

To see if a UEFI machine is capable of this, it will be necessary to go into the BIOS emulation setup.

Look for the following items:

UEFI boot (enabled)

Secure boot (enabled)

CSM (Legacy) boot – (disabled)

If all three are present, then the first step would be to disable UEFI and Secure** boot and enable CSM boot.

**Caution: If BitLocker is in use, disabling Secure boot may cause a loss of your BitLocker keys! Make sure your Bitlocker keys are backed up!

Apr 15, 2024 Edit: Please see this GRC web page ( https://www.grc.com/bootable.htm ) for important information for suspending BitLocker (for safe Secure Boot disabling) if BitLocker is in use!!!

If there is no CSM option, then SR 6.x cannot be booted/run on this machine. In this case the user would have to wait for SpinRite 7.0 with UEFI Booting.

Also check the drive/SATA controller mode options.

If the only controller option is AHCI, then there is no point in running SR 6.0 on the machine as SR 6.0 cannot see AHCI drives.
SR 6.1, however, is fully compatible with AHCI controller mode.

If there is an ATA option (IDE/Legacy on some older machines), select that for SpinRite 6.0. It is not necessary for SpinRite 6.1 but it will work just fine with that mode.

Save the changes and boot. Booting from SpinRite boot media should now work, and both SR 6.0 and SR 6.1 should run.

Caveat: The advancement of technology has not been kind to SpinRite 6.0.
Thus, SR 6.0’s BIOS dependence has created crippling restrictions for SR 6.0.
Slow BIOS I/O speed, a capacity limitation for large (>2.2 TB) drives, etc., may not permit SR 6.0 to perform as desired or in a practical manner.

For a valid alternative way to boot SpinRite 6.x on a UEFI machine. please see @Scott's excellent series of articles starting at:
Got a question? Post a Reply to ask.

Edited Oct 21, 2023 for SpinRite 6.1 applicability.

Thank you for that summary - it’s very helpful. I heard on the podcast today Steve talking about 7.x having an app for Windoze. (It wasn’t 6.1 that he was talking about was it?). I don’t use dozy Windoze, I use Linux Debian derivatives and MacOS. Will I be out of luck when 7.x is released?

squirrel said:

Thank you for that summary - it’s very helpful. I heard on the podcast today Steve talking about 7.x having an app for Windoze. (It wasn’t 6.1 that he was talking about was it?). I don’t use dozy Windoze, I use Linux Debian derivatives and MacOS. Will I be out of luck when 7.x is released?

Click to expand...

You are welcome for the summary.

The 7.x versions will boot up their own working environment, just like SpinRite 6.0 does and 6.1 will do. The OS is irrelevant. 7.0 looks to be dual boot for UEFI and BIOS systems. It will boot on Windows and Mac systems. 7.1 and 7.2 will add additional features not in 6.1. Please see the SpinRite Development Roadmap for more information.

I am not sure about Linux. A quick perusal of NG postings indicates that just might be possible. Perhaps someone with Linux experience could chime in here regarding that question.

Steve has talked on occasion about a SpinRite 8 that would be a Windows app running mainly in the background while the user runs other Windows apps in the foreground. .

Steve is currently deeply immeshed in SpinRite 6.1 development, getting ever closer to an eventual SpinRite 6.1 Beta 1 test release.

DanR said:

Steve is currently deeply immeshed in SpinRite 6.1 development, getting ever closer to an eventual SpinRite 6.1 Beta 1 test release.

Click to expand...

Wow! Over half a year later and SR 6.1 is now almost in its 5th month of Alpha testing & development. Methinks it is quite likely now weeks rather than months away from Beta. I know Steve cannot get it there soon enough, but things cannot be rushed. It's coming, people! Just be patient a little bit longer.

DanR said:

I am not sure about Linux. A quick perusal of NG postings indicates that just might be possible. Perhaps someone with Linux experience could chime in here regarding that question.

Click to expand...

As you said above, 7.0 will boot it's own environment, therefore there is no reason why it should not work on a Linux machine. In fact I have been running some of the 6.1 alphas on my Linux machine.

DanR said:

You are welcome for the summary.

The 7.x versions will boot up their own working environment, just like SpinRite 6.0 does and 6.1 will do. The OS is irrelevant. 7.0 looks to be dual boot for UEFI and BIOS systems. It will boot on Windows and Mac systems. 7.1 and 7.2 will add additional features not in 6.1. Please see the SpinRite Development Roadmap for more information.

I am not sure about Linux. A quick perusal of NG postings indicates that just might be possible. Perhaps someone with Linux experience could chime in here regarding that question.

Steve has talked on occasion about a SpinRite 8 that would be a Windows app running mainly in the background while the user runs other Windows apps in the foreground. .

Steve is currently deeply immeshed in SpinRite 6.1 development, getting ever closer to an eventual SpinRite 6.1 Beta 1 test release.

Click to expand...

The Macs will have to be older Intel x86 machines...not the newer ARM M based computers...correct?

jeff3820 said:

The Macs will have to be older Intel x86 machines...not the newer ARM M based computers...correct?

Click to expand...

Correct!

DanR said:

SpinRite 6.0 requires a BIOS-DOS environment to boot and run in, as does SpinRite 6.1

To see if a UEFI machine is capable of this, it will be necessary to go into the BIOS emulation setup.

Look for the following items:

UEFI boot (enabled)

Secure boot (enabled)

CSM (Legacy) boot – (disabled)

If all three are present, then the first step would be to disable UEFI and Secure** boot and enable CSM boot.

**Caution: If Bitlocker is in use, disabling Secure boot may cause a loss of your Bitlocker keys. Make sure your Bitlocker keys are backed up.

If there is no CSM option, then SR 6.x cannot be booted/run on this machine. In this case the user would have to wait for SpinRite 7.0 UEFI Boot.

Also check the drive/SATA controller mode options.

If the only controller option is AHCI, then there is no point in running SR 6.0 on the machine as SR 6.0 cannot see AHCI drives.
SR 6.1, however, is fully compatible with AHCI controller mode.

If there is an ATA option (IDE/Legacy on older machines), select that for SpinRite 6.0. It is not necessary for SpinRite 6.1 but it will work just fine with it.

Save the changes and boot. Booting from SpinRite boot media should now work, and both SR 6.0 and SR 6.1 should run.

Caveat: The advancement of technology has not been kind to SpinRite 6.0.
Thus, SR 6.0’s BIOS dependence has created crippling restrictions for SR 6.0.
Slow BIOS I/O speed, a capacity limitation for large (>2.2 TB) drives, etc., may not permit SR 6.0 to perform as desired or in a practical manner.

Got a question? Post a Reply to ask.

Edited Oct 21, 2023 for SpinRite 6.1 applicability.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the comprehensive reply. I'll pursue this but suspect I'm SOL until Steve gets to 7.0.

Hi All,

THANKS STEVE, GREAT WORK and I am a very happy and satisfied user of SR6.0 and looking forward to using SR6.1 BUT I have a little issue, I have a LENOVO ThinkPad (X1 CARBON) test laptop and cannot boot from the USB.

I have done the following;
UEFI has been disabled and Legacy Boot is ON
CSM Boot is ON
Secure Boot is disabled

I have run BOOTABLE and it was successful

I have used a 4Gb, 8Gb, 16Gb USB and all the same result. Have i missed something ?

THANKS IN ADVANCE.

coco3004 said:

I have run BOOTABLE and it was successful

Click to expand...

coco3004 said:

cannot boot from the USB.

Click to expand...

Sounds like you failed at making a bootable USB. What did you do, precisely?

PHolder said:

Sounds like you failed at making a bootable USB. What did you do, precisely?

Click to expand...

Hi thanks for the reply. As per instructions, downloaded SR6.1, run the executable, it created the USB (I can confirm) and it told me it was successful.

It's pretty hard to mess this up, so how could I have messed up making the drive bootable ? please advise, did I misread and miss a step ?

coco3004 said:

Hi thanks for the reply. As per instructions, downloaded SR6.1, run the executable, it created the USB (I can confirm) and it told me it was successful.

It's pretty hard to mess this up, so how could I have messed up making the drive bootable ? please advise, did I misread and miss a step ?

Click to expand...

I have the same problem with my late 2013 Mac (currently running Linux). I wasn’t able to get the USB to boot, so I converted the img file to iso and burned it to a disc. It boots, but I get to the “press enter to start SpinRite” screen and nothing happens when I press enter. So you might try burning it to a disc.

coco3004 said:

It's pretty hard to mess this up, so how could I have messed up making the drive bootable ? please advise, did I misread and miss a step ?

Click to expand...

I agree. THAT is a mystery to me. The process of creating and running "BootAble" and "SpinRite 6.1" are effectively identical.
One thing you could do, since you were able to get BootAble to boot, would be to copy your SPINRITE.EXE to the BootAble drive, boot it, exit to DOS, then run SpinRite.

coco3004 said:

Hi All,

THANKS STEVE, GREAT WORK and I am a very happy and satisfied user of SR6.0 and looking forward to using SR6.1 BUT I have a little issue, I have a LENOVO ThinkPad (X1 CARBON) test laptop and cannot boot from the USB.

I have done the following;
UEFI has been disabled and Legacy Boot is ON
CSM Boot is ON
Secure Boot is disabled

I have run BOOTABLE and it was successful

I have used a 4Gb, 8Gb, 16Gb USB and all the same result. Have i missed something ?

THANKS IN ADVANCE.

Click to expand...

Do you have any other computers that you could try your flash drive on? If it works anywhere else, chances are you didn't mess up the process.

himemsys said:

Do you have any other computers that you could try your flash drive on? If it works anywhere else, chances are you didn't mess up the process.

Click to expand...

That's a great suggestion!

coco3004 said:

It's pretty hard to mess this up

Click to expand...

I agree, and it sounds like you took the right steps. I can't understand how Bootable would work and yet SpinRite would not, they should be using pretty similar tech to produce the USB stick.

So now the question is, I guess, how are defining failing to boot? Perhaps it is actually booting the USB, but not generating an output that you expect? There is a splash screen that SpinRite tries to output during booting, and maybe that is not showing up (or the display is not getting to a happy state) and you're unable to see what happened/happens?

As Steve suggested above, if Bootable boots for you, you can copy your SpinRite.exe onto that Bootable created USB device and run it directly...

Steve said:

I agree. THAT is a mystery to me. The process of creating and running "BootAble" and "SpinRite 6.1" are effectively identical.
One thing you could do, since you were able to get BootAble to boot, would be to copy your SPINRITE.EXE to the BootAble drive, boot it, exit to DOS, then run SpinRite.

Click to expand...

Hey Steve, THANKS HEAPS, I will give that a try.... By the way, Security Now ROCKS, I wait for it every week and throughly enjoy it.. THANK YOU

PHolder said:

I agree, and it sounds like you took the right steps. I can't understand how Bootable would work and yet SpinRite would not, they should be using pretty similar tech to produce the USB stick.

So now the question is, I guess, how are defining failing to boot? Perhaps it is actually booting the USB, but not generating an output that you expect? There is a splash screen that SpinRite tries to output during booting, and maybe that is not showing up (or the display is not getting to a happy state) and you're unable to see what happened/happens?

As Steve suggested above, if Bootable boots for you, you can copy your SpinRite.exe onto that Bootable created USB device and run it directly...

Click to expand...

Hey @PHolder no... sadly. I get the F12 boot menu (on the LENOVO X1 Carbon) I select the boot device and about 2-3 seconds later, I get the same boot menu.... sigh ! Ill keep playing and follow the suggestion that steve made and post the results at some point over my weekend. THANK YOU

Steve said:

That's a great suggestion!

Click to expand...

Hi Steve, not at home presently (I got rid of all of them prior to my house move....) This is definately on the cards and will try next week, when I am at one of my clients site that have some "spare" systems to test on....

Chimeran said:

I have the same problem with my late 2013 Mac (currently running Linux). I wasn’t able to get the USB to boot, so I converted the img file to iso and burned it to a disc. It boots, but I get to the “press enter to start SpinRite” screen and nothing happens when I press enter. So you might try burning it to a disc.

Click to expand...

OK, I have an external CD Burner here in my lab so I will try that too. THANK YOU

Hello all. Not new to SpinRite, but new to the forum. Currently working through trying to get SpinRite 6.1 to boot on a Dell Inspiron 3910, with the newer Dell BIOS that does not support legacy. Was able to turn off RAID (not needed anyway), turn off "Enable Secure Boot", and enabled "Audit Mode", under "Secure Boot mode." I also added the SpinRite 6.1 created USB as a Boot Option. I press F12 on boot, select my created boot option, and get, “no bootable devices found.”

When adding SpinRite USB as a boot option in the bios, Dell prompts first for the file name and boot option name. I select command.com after navigating to the correct device and name the bootable option SR. Attached are to images.

Please let me know if you have any suggestions. Thank you.

Seth Rosenberg said:

Dell BIOS that does not support legacy.

Click to expand...

You cannot run SpinRite 6.1 or earlier if you cannot boot FreeDOS, and you cannot boot FreeDOS if you cannot boot a legacy OS. You need a different setup (you could consider spending money on a cheap used system or one of the ZimaBoards like Steve uses for development.) Optionally, you can wait some number of years (estimated) until SpinRite 7 becomes available.

coco3004 said:

Hey @PHolder no... sadly. I get the F12 boot menu (on the LENOVO X1 Carbon) I select the boot device and about 2-3 seconds later, I get the same boot menu.... sigh ! Ill keep playing and follow the suggestion that steve made and post the results at some point over my weekend. THANK YOU

Click to expand...

This is confusing....so you've got a USB that will boot into the Bootable executable, but if you copy spinrite to that USB, the USB will no longer boot?

Scott said:

This is confusing....so you've got a USB that will boot into the Bootable executable, but if you copy spinrite to that USB, the USB will no longer boot?

Click to expand...

No I think there is a miscommunication... Let me correct the record (sorry if I was confusing) I mean BOOTABLE will create the usb but NOT boot from that or from what spinrite.exe creates. Sorry for the confusion... I should have corrected that at the start sorry. BUT none the less it will not boot so I am thinking that the lenovo x1 carbon may not behave as it should (I note there is another post here with the same machine.) I will post any resolution to this issue If I fix it..

Thanks and sorry again..

coco3004 said:

No I think there is a miscommunication... Let me correct the record (sorry if I was confusing) I mean BOOTABLE will create the usb but NOT boot from that or from what spinrite.exe creates. Sorry for the confusion... I should have corrected that at the start sorry. BUT none the less it will not boot so I am thinking that the lenovo x1 carbon may not behave as it should (I note there is another post here with the same machine.) I will post any resolution to this issue If I fix it..

Thanks and sorry again..

Click to expand...

No problem, really. What we know is that Intel officially declared the BIOS to be “dead” about 10 years ago and for UEFI firmware to be the new official firmware for machines. Overall, this is a fantastic and much needed “catch up”, since the design of the BIOS was never expandable or updatable and BOY was it growing old. The downside of this change was a COMPLETE lack of compatibility with any earlier software (like any DOS and anything that depended upon it) — like SpinRite.

For this reason, virtually ALL such systems voluntarily included a CSM (Compatibility Support Module) which added the legacy BIOS to the newer UEFI so that such systems offered both.

And since then, predictably, over time, newer systems have dropped their support for the BIOS by no longer bothering the include a "legacy boot mode" or "CSM".

It's because I knew that DOS and the BIOS were ultimately dead ends that I decided to halt work on SpinRite 6.1 where that work would not be portable to a UEFI world. SpinRite v7 will dual boot on either BIOS or UEFI.

But for today, the question anyone and everyone wishing to use SpinRite v6.1 on any machine they haven't previously used with SpinRite 6.0, is whether that machine has “retro” support for the BIOS that will allow DOS to boot and SpinRite to run.

coco3004 said:

I mean BOOTABLE will create the usb but NOT boot from that

Click to expand...

AHA, now it all makes more sense. Thanks for the clarification. So you've searched your BIOS for an option to enable a CSM and found none? In general, for Legacy Booting, you need to disable secure boot and enable the CSM. If you're unable to do this, then it's likely the case your PC cannot do a legacy boot at all, and you need to wait for SpinRite 7. In the mean time, you could invest in a cheap used PC or you could check out the ZimaBoard that Steve uses for development.

PHolder said:

AHA, now it all makes more sense. Thanks for the clarification. So you've searched your BIOS for an option to enable a CSM and found none? In general, for Legacy Booting, you need to disable secure boot and enable the CSM. If you're unable to do this, then it's likely the case your PC cannot do a legacy boot at all, and you need to wait for SpinRite 7. In the mean time, you could invest in a cheap used PC or you could check out the ZimaBoard that Steve uses for development.

Click to expand...

Hey, yes sorry for the confusion... Might have to get an older laptop as suggested and see what I can come up with. THANKS AGAIN for all your help...

Steve said:

No problem, really. What we know is that Intel officially declared the BIOS to be “dead” about 10 years ago and for UEFI firmware to be the new official firmware for machines. Overall, this is a fantastic and much needed “catch up”, since the design of the BIOS was never expandable or updatable and BOY was it growing old. The downside of this change was a COMPLETE lack of compatibility with any earlier software (like any DOS and anything that depended upon it) — like SpinRite.

For this reason, virtually ALL such systems voluntarily included a CSM (Compatibility Support Module) which added the legacy BIOS to the newer UEFI so that such systems offered both.

And since then, predictably, over time, newer systems have dropped their support for the BIOS by no longer bothering the include a "legacy boot mode" or "CSM".

It's because I knew that DOS and the BIOS were ultimately dead ends that I decided to halt work on SpinRite 6.1 where that work would not be portable to a UEFI world. SpinRite v7 will dual boot on either BIOS or UEFI.

But for today, the question anyone and everyone wishing to use SpinRite v6.1 on any machine they haven't previously used with SpinRite 6.0, is whether that machine has “retro” support for the BIOS that will allow DOS to boot and SpinRite to run.

Click to expand...

Thanks Steve, all good, I think I will have to find a check PC/LAPTOP that I can boot SR6.1 with and use that for my system to test the mass storage devices that I am trying to "fix" with SR... THANK YOU Once again STEVE... and team really appreciate it.

coco3004 said:

Once again STEVE... and team really appreciate it.

Click to expand...

It's a terrific team of very helpful and knowledgeable people.

Apologies if this question has been asked and answered already. I'm in a spot where all systems in my home are UEFI only. I'd like to throw something together for running SpinRite on drives. Steve, you mentioned during your development process on the podcast that you had run across an all one one motherboard/cpu combo device that seemed to work well for your testing. That still seem like a good option?

Refresh my memory, is SpinRite 6.1 compatible with NVMe drives or does it have to be SATA?

Adam-TheMan-Tyler said:

an all one one motherboard/cpu combo device

Click to expand...

The ZimaBoard: https://shop.zimaboard.com/products/zimaboard-single-board-server

If you want to connect 2 3.5" HDDs at the same time, make sure to buy a larger power supply: https://www.amazon.com/Facmogu-Switching-Converter-5-5x2-5mm-5-5x2-1mm/dp/B0711Q5B49
I can't vouch for that power supply. I just matches the specifications from the ZimaBoard manual: https://www.zimaboard.com/download/ZimaBoard_User_Manual_220118.pdf

Adam-TheMan-Tyler said:

is SpinRite 6.1 compatible with NVMe drives or does it have to be SATA?

Click to expand...

Sort of. If the BIOS cooperates, SpinRite will be able to see it. However, it won't be full speed, and it won't be using 6.1's new low level drivers. SpinRite currently works best on SATA and IDE drives.

@Adam-TheMan-Tyler : What Colby wrote (above) is 100% correct. I'm still loving the ZimaBoard and it should be regarded as the "reference platform" for all SpinRite -- and other work -- going forward. I purchased one of their newer “ZimaBlade” devices but it doesn't turn out to be any less expensive once RAM and Power, etc, are added. And it's less capable. So I'm sticking with the original ZimaBoard. And the smallest of the three is 100% fine.

@Steve - I've run into a situation similar to others in this thread. I recently bought a used Shuttle DS77U mini PC. Since it came with a WD SSD with an unknown amount of use/abuse, I thought it would be good to run SpinRite on it to verify/refresh all the cells. Unfortunately, while the BIOS has options for Secure Boot as well as UEFI/Legacy (as "Boot Mode Select" option), there isn't an explicit option for CSM. I suspect that the "Legacy" Boot Mode Select combines CSM and BIOS modes since (when set to Legacy and with Secure Boot disabled) I can boot with a flashdrive formatted with GRC's BootAble utility. And once booted, I can run SpinRite from that flashdrive. However, I can't boot with a flashdrive when it's set up using SpinRite 6.1 R3, even if I use the same flashdrive that works when set up with BootAble. (And, yes, that same SpinRite-formatted flashdrive boots on other PCs.) I'm not dead in the water, since I do have that BootAble workaround, but I do find it strange, and don't know if it's worthy of attention on your part.

As an aside, after hearing the discussion a number of years ago on Security Now about running multiple home firewalls, I started running two firewalls in series running OPNsense (I switched from PFsense a few years ago). It's nice not having to worry about things like WLAN traffic or camera firmware having direct network access to our PCs.

Inside PCs (trusted) > FIREWALL > WLAN/cameras/Alexae/TVs/etc. (somewhat trusted) > FIREWALL > Internet (here there be dragons)

The two firewalls are also Shuttle DS77U's, which draw 10 to 15 watts each, and are fanless/silent. I bought the extra DS77U in case one of the other two dies. And because it is a spare, if you'd like me to ship it to you to test for a week or two, I'd be happy to do so. Then again, there might already be a fix for the above issue that I didn't notice when poking about the forums.

DrBunsen said:

I can boot with a flashdrive formatted with GRC's BootAble utility. And once booted, I can run SpinRite from that flashdrive. However, I can't boot with a flashdrive when it's set up using SpinRite 6.1 R3, even if I use the same flashdrive that works when set up with BootAble. (And, yes, that same SpinRite-formatted flashdrive boots on other PCs.) I'm not dead in the water, since I do have that BootAble workaround, but I do find it strange, and don't know if it's worthy of attention on your part.

Click to expand...

@DrBunsen,

This behavior appears to be the result of a line that Steve erroneously and inadvertently left in Config.sys file on bootable flash drives created by SR61.exe Release 3. Steve is aware of it and will fix it in a future release.

Meanwhile, if you are comfortable with editing the config.sys file, you can make the easy fix yourself right now.

Simply edit config.sys (either at Windows level using Notepad or at DOS level using EDIT) and remove the following line:

INSTALL=DOWNSIZE.COM C:

Save the file and re-boot with the flash drive.

SpinRite 6.1 rel 3 will now boot and run without further ado.

Yep - that fixed it. Thanks!

I used SpinRite 6.0 for 10 years on my old PCs, no problems. My new WIndows 11 PC has a GigaByte B660M DS3H AX DDR4 mbd (with i3-12100 3.3 GHz CPU), which is CSM-capable. IsBootSecure did not show it on the insecure list, but said its CA Root Cert is not in the Trusted Root Certification Authorities store. So I clicked on "Install Certificate" in the PKf, which showed it installed successfully. But when I re-ran IsBootSecure, it still showed the CA Root Cert as not in the store and not trusted. I repeated the "Install Certificate" process and yet again later, with the same result. I mention that in case it could cause my system not to boot from the known-good USB, which Bootable said had installed successfully. In the BIOS I turned off Secure Mode (don't use Bitlocker), activated CSM Support, moved the USB to first in the boot order, saved and exited with no indication of a problem. But then the system rebooted into Windows. I went back into the BIOS, and saw it had unilaterally turned off CSM Support. So I re-enabled it, but got the same old reboot. I kept repeating this, trying every possible setup variation, but always the same result: Secure Mode stayed off, but the BIOS never left CSM Support on, sometimes also moving the USB down in the boot order. Since the firmware needed an update, I put the files on the Bootable USB. Sure enough, the system booted from the USB just fine in UEFI mode, installed the firmware, and re-booted back to the EFI Shell on the USB - nothing wrong with the USB. The BIOS just always turns off CSM Support between save-&-exit and rebooting. Btw, I thought I shouldn't keep Secure Mode off, so I re-enabled it in the BIOS, and guess what ... now IsBootSecure keeps showing that Secure Mode hasn't turned back on! I usually enjoy figuring things out, but I'm just baffled. I'd love some help at this point.

@KenB , I looked up your GigaByte B660M DS3H AX DDR4 motherboard, downloaded the manual, and found the following. It looks like you also need to configure Storage Boot Option Control and Other PCI Devices for Legacy?

CSM Support
Enables or disables UEFI CSM (Compatibility Support Module) to support a legacy PC boot process.
Disabled Disables UEFI CSM and supports UEFI BIOS boot process only.
Enabled Enables UEFI CSM.

LAN PXE Boot Option ROM
Allows you to select whether to enable the legacy option ROM for the LAN controller.
This item is configurable only when CSM Support is set to Enabled.

Storage Boot Option Control
Allows you to select whether to enable the UEFI or legacy option ROM for the storage device controller.
Do not launch Disables option ROM.
UEFI Enables UEFI option ROM only.
Legacy Enables legacy option ROM only.
This item is configurable only when CSM Support is set to Enabled.

Other PCI devices
Allows you to select whether to enable the UEFI or Legacy option ROM for the PCI device controller other
than the LAN, storage device, and graphics controllers.
Do not launch Disables option ROM.
UEFI Enables UEFI option ROM only.

Legacy Enables legacy option ROM only.
This item is configurable only when CSM Support is set to Enabled.

KenB said:

CA Root Cert is not in the Trusted Root Certification Authorities store

Click to expand...

That tool can't fix the problem that way. The boot certificates are ONLY managed by the UEFI (what some call the BIOS). That install button is not meant to be used... it's a consequence of the Windows subsystem Steve used to display the certificate info in a dialog.

Thanks, Dan. Unfortunately, I had already configured Storage Boot Option Control and Other PCI Devices for Legacy. Tho the BIOS setting for CSM Support was 'on' when I saved and exited, it still booted into Windows. Going back into the BIOS, it had saved all my other setting changes, but not CSM Support. I did notice the Boot Override setting on the Save-&-Exit page. The manual says: "Allows you to select a device to boot immediately. Press <Enter> on the device you select and select Yes to confirm. Your system will restart automatically and boot from that device." The USB was listed, so I selected it, pressed <Enter>, then Yes. The system restarted automatically but did NOT boot from the USB. But as I wrote before, it did boot from the USB when I flashed the BIOS, and it rebooted into the USB to an EFI prompt.

I also tried it tonight on a Win10 Dell Latitude E7240 Ultrabook I own but rarely use. After re-configuring its BIOS, the USB booted right up, as did 6.1 when I typed "spinrite" at the C:\> prompt. The Gigabyte B660M on the Win11 desktop PC should be but isn't doing the same, for any reason I can see.

PHolder, since that tool can't fix the problem, can I just ignore the boot certificate not being trusted, or is it important enough for me to spend scarce free time learning how to install it?

Hmmm . . . you do not mention seeing/using a boot menu. From the manual I downloaded:

<F12>: BOOT MENU
Boot Menu allows you to set the first boot device without entering BIOS Setup. In Boot Menu, use the up
arrow key <h> or the down arrow key to select the first boot device, then press <Enter> to accept.
The system will boot from the device immediately.
Note: The setting in Boot Menu is effective for one time only. After system restart, the device boot order
will still be based on BIOS Setup settings.

To see this press F12 repeatedly immediately upon power-on or immediately upon exiting BIOS setup. BIOS settings must all be set to legacy!

Note: You may safety ignore the certificate trust issue.

KenB said:

can I just ignore the boot certificate not being trusted

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It's telling you that Windows doesn't trust/know the certificate... and yes you can completely ignore that, because it's only important that UEFI/BIOS trusts it.

DanR said:

Hmmm . . . you do not mention seeing/using a boot menu. From the manual I downloaded:

<F12>: BOOT MENU
Boot Menu allows you to set the first boot device without entering BIOS Setup. In Boot Menu, use the up
arrow key <h> or the down arrow key to select the first boot device, then press <Enter> to accept.
The system will boot from the device immediately.
Note: The setting in Boot Menu is effective for one time only. After system restart, the device boot order
will still be based on BIOS Setup settings.

To see this press F12 repeatedly immediately upon power-on or immediately upon exiting BIOS setup. BIOS settings must all be set to legacy!

Note: You may safety ignore the certificate trust issue.

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@DanR, unfortunately the <F12> Boot Menu can't be used to boot into DOS from the USB, bc CSM Support is always disabled after rebooting. So, BIOS Setup must be entered first to enable CSM Support. Then I could access Boot Override on the Save-&-Exit page (the same function as that <F12> Boot Menu) to select the USB to boot from immediately. But as I wrote, the system ignored it and still booted into Windows. Again, the BIOS saved all my settings changes except CSM Support. But the USB DID boot up in EFI mode, not needing CSM Support to flash the BIOS. So the problem is the system auto-disabling CSM Support, contrary to the BIOS setting just saved.

KenB said:

I put the files on the Bootable USB. Sure enough, the system booted from the USB just fine in UEFI mode, installed the firmware, and re-booted back to the EFI Shell on the USB - nothing wrong with the USB. The BIOS just always turns off CSM Support between save-&-exit and rebooting. Btw, I thought I shouldn't keep Secure Mode off, so I re-enabled it in the BIOS, and guess what ... now IsBootSecure keeps showing that Secure Mode hasn't turned back on! I usually enjoy figuring things out, but I'm just baffled. I'd love some help at this point.

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If I am understanding this correctly: You created a UEFI bootable USB and dropped SpinRite.exe on that? If so, that will NOT work! SpinRite CANNOT run in a UEFI booted environment. That might explain what you are seeing. If the BIOS is seeing ONLY UEFI boot drives, it may be flipping itself back to UEFI to boot off of a UEFI drive.

You must first run spinrite.exe at Windows level as a Windows app. It will guide you thru inserting a USB drive which it will then format and write as a FreeDOS booting USB drive, and then copy itself (spinrite.exe) to this FreeDOS drive. With this FreeDOS drive plugged in at boot up, and CSM selected in the BIOS, I'm thinking the BIOS would now see the FeeDOS drive and now respect the CSM option selection and allow booting from that drive?

@DanR, as described in my original post, I used GRC's Bootable (not spinrite.exe) as instructed to enable my USB to test booting into FreeDOS. Since that failed, I couldn't even try to run Spinrite. In fact, prior to that I did exactly what you said: I ran spinrite.exe in Windows. It formatted a USB I inserted, wrote it to boot into FreeDOS, and copied spinrite.exe to it. With this USB plugged in at boot up and CSM Support turned on, the BIOS did show that FreeDOS drive as a boot option, and I put it at the top of the boot order. But after saving and exiting the BIOS, booting from that drive was not allowed. Since the BIOS version was way behind, I wanted to see if an update would help, so I added those files to the USB. The system booted right into the USB (in EFI mode, not Legacy) and flashed successfully, so GRC's Bootable had correctly made the USB bootable. The BIOS gave no indication of a problem when I made all the settings selections required for Legacy mode, then saved and exited, and the BIOS retained all those selections except for CSM Support On. I don't know whether the BIOS itself did not respect the CSM selection or something else in the system reversed it after I saved and exited the BIOS, but that's clearly the problem to solve.

@DanR, if I wasn't clear, I first used the USB and spinrite.exe in Windows, and it failed. So I downloaded and ran Bootable, having read it could help diagnose problems getting FreeDOS to boot up. As expected, it reformatted the USB and completed successfully, but that didn't help, the exact same problem occurred with Bootable as before with spinrite.exe.

KenB said:

Since the BIOS version was way behind, I wanted to see if an update would help, so I added those files to the USB. The system booted right into the USB (in EFI mode, not Legacy) and flashed successfully, so GRC's Bootable had correctly made the USB bootable

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Confusion! A USB is either UEFI bootable or FreeDOS bootable, but NOT both!

BootAble only creates a FreeDOS ONLY bootable USB flash drive.

KenB said:

I first used the USB and spinrite.exe in Windows, and it failed

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How does it fail? SpinRite.exe is a dual executable. It runs under Windows as a Windows app, guiding the user thru the process of creating FreeDOS bootable media and placing a copy of SpinRite.exe on the FreeDOS bootable drive. In a DOS environment the same SpinRite.exe runs as a DOS app., the familiar SpinRite 6.1.

@DanR, I didn't mean that spinrite.exe itself failed, I meant that setting up the USB with it failed to result in booting into FreeDOS, always restarting into Windows instead. As I described above: "I ran spinrite.exe in Windows. It formatted a USB I inserted, wrote it to boot into FreeDOS, and copied spinrite.exe to it. With this USB plugged in at boot up and CSM Support turned on, the BIOS did show that FreeDOS drive as a boot option, and I put it at the top of the boot order. But after saving and exiting the BIOS, booting from that drive was not allowed."

Also, now that I know BootAble can only create a FreeDOS bootable USB, clearly GigaByte's update package made the USB UEFI-bootable and able to flash the BIOS. That update's success indicates the USB isn't defective and can be booted from, just not into FreeDOS because something always disables the "CSM Support activated" setting between exiting the BIOS and starting the reboot. If CSM Support would stay enabled, the system would boot into FreeDOS. That's the only real problem to solve, since the BIOS retains all the other required Legacy mode settings between reboots.

KenB said:

Also, now that I know BootAble can only create a FreeDOS bootable USB, clearly GigaByte's update package made the USB UEFI-bootable and able to flash the BIOS.

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WOW! I would NOT expect that! The BootAble.exe that is downloaded is a Windows app that guides the user in creating a FreeDos bootable USB flash drive to verify FreeDOS boot-ability. And that GigaByte update package is forcing the creation of UEFI bootable media instead???

Is it doing the same thing when running SpinRite.exe as a Windows app? I believe both EXE's use the same "Windows app" tech. If so, is FreeDOS bootable media never actually being created on that machine??? That would explain the BIOS behavior. If the BIOS is indeed never seeing any FreeDOS bootable media (because none is ever created) then I can see it flipping CSM to UEFI if UEFI boot options are all it is seeing.

Note: neither FreeDOS or SpinRite will be able to run in an UEFI booted environment.

That would seem to leave only one other option: Would you have access to another system capable of creating FreeDOS bootable media?

@DanR - Yes, as I posted back on Wed (10:05 PM): "I also tried [the bootable FreeDOS USB] tonight on a Win10 Dell Latitude E7240 Ultrabook I own but rarely use. After re-configuring its BIOS, the USB booted right up, as did 6.1 when I typed "spinrite" at the C:\> prompt. The Gigabyte B660M on the Win11 desktop PC should be but isn't doing the same, for any reason I can see."

So, running 6.1 successfully on that laptop, I knew FreeDOS and Spinrite were correctly installed on the USB. They weren't booting up on the Win11/Gigabyte B660M PC bc the system was preventing it. But how? Why? Since a helluva lot of Gigabyte B660M's have been sold, all offering CSM Support and Legacy mode, I'm sure MANY Spinrite users are running 6.1 on machines with a Gigabyte B660M. Having listened to Security Now since its first year and used Steve's software for much longer, I know this mysterious problem I'm having couldn't have come up in testing before 6.1 was released, or Steve and the forum would've solved it. How did I get so "lucky"?

What do you have a for a video card? I see an option to turn on CSM on my motherboard, but all attempts to turn it on tells me something about VBIOS doesn't support it, which leads me to believe my RTX 3060 doesn't have support for CSM, and if my system supports FreeDOS, I might need to remove the GPU I have installed.

It's also possible the error comes up on my machine because both dedicated and integrated GPUs doesn't have the needed support to run CSM. My motherboard supports both 10th and 11th gen Intel CPUs, with the focus being 11th gen (With an M.2 slot only usable with 11th gen CPU, and the two 16x slots being gen 5 speeds)

KenB said:

know this mysterious problem I'm having couldn't have come up in testing before 6.1 was released, or Steve and the forum would've solved it. How did I get so "lucky"?

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Beats me!

Apparently that BIOS is indeed the culprit. Seems like there is a subtle setting somewhere that is forcing UEFI only operation. I have no idea where to look. Maybe look at the video as miquelfire has suggested?

You guys nailed it! Since I'm not into any graphics-intensive applications, I've just been using my i3-12100's iGPU. Well, I just found out it's UEFI-only and doesn't support VBIOS (required for CSM), but any discrete video card should. Problem solved!!! I have a Gigabyte GeForce GT1030 from my previous system. It wasn't better for my uses and is less power-efficient than the iGPU, so I left the card in a box. Now I'm so glad I didn't get rid of it. Btw, I'm amazed this issue hasn't come up before - what I read (not from Intel, so not authoritative) said the iGPU on all 12th gen Intel CPUs lack VBIOS. Could I really be the only Spinrite 6.1 user trying to run it with a 12th gen iGPU??? Thanks so much for the help!

KenB said:

Could I really be the only Spinrite 6.1 user trying to run it with a 12th gen iGPU???

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The vast majority of motherboards running 12th gen Intel CPUs are UEFI only, so they won’t work to begin with. So yes, you could be the first person to try a 12th gen Intel CPU with a CSM-capable motherboard.

I think the fact CSM is an option on motherboards with Intel CPUs that don't support it is just a case of them not using the correct BIOS on it. Sort of like buying a new computer and installing Windows 7 on it.

GigaByte promotes this mbd's overclocking capability, so almost all buyers must be using at-least-decent video cards, making the iGPU irrelevant. And GigaByte cd just ignore it and avoid having to program for the special case of missing VBIOS. MSI at least puts up an error message for that special case so you know what's wrong, but GigaByte just lets you flap in the wind, and with no real tech support. Cheap shit company, I've found out. Luckily, you guys helped me to diagnose the problem and avoid getting burned by GigaByte being too classless to even throw up an error message. So thanks again.